Chapter 713: Hard Task

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The establishment of the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces has undergone new changes. Given that the number of detachments has long exceeded the system of ordinary regiments, the headquarters took this opportunity to raise the level of the detachment one level and transformed it into a brigade-level detachment. The newly established Fourth Route Army of the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces was composed of the Anbin Column as the base, and joined the Jia Yonggen Brigade, which had been fighting side by side with the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces for several months. In addition, the former left-behind troops that returned from the Xiaoxinganling Column, the scale of the Fourth Route Army jumped to 10,000 people.

"Oh! It should have been more than 10,000 people." Ma Qian'an, holding a note in his hand, sighed slightly to Zhou Yucheng standing next to him.

The note lists the structural diagram of the Fourth Route Army and the current status of each subordinate unit.

The continuous hard battles have caused the Anbin Column and Jia Yonggen Brigade to be greatly reduced. From the time the Japanese army entered the mountain, more than 3,000 people have been killed or disappeared from the two troops. If we go further, from the day the tenth detachment was established, the Anbin Column alone has lost more than 7,000 people, and they will be replenished as they are fought, and they will be replenished as they are replenished. Gradually, more and more blood flowing, and more lives have been dedicated to the mountains, becoming an unyielding soul to protect the country.

Zhou Yucheng was also appointed as the political commissar of the Fourth Route Army by Yang Jingyu. He was the first to be promoted to the support cadres who came to the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces. Generally speaking, it is rare to have a good partner. Considering that the two of them cooperated tacitly, the superiors simply raised Zhou Yucheng a higher level.

Zhou Yucheng continued in a low tone: "Yes... we will always remember those comrades who sacrificed their lives for the country." Zhou Yucheng is indeed Ma Qian'an's old partner, and soon understood the reason why Ma Qian'an sighed.

"Their blood will not flow in vain..."

"Yes, their blood will not flow in vain!"

The two stood in front of a map, seemingly trying to deploy a major military operation, but they said words that had little to do with the military operation.

The combat order from the Anti-Japanese United Army headquarters made both of them feel heavy.

The orders were: 1, 2, and 4th Route Army captured the northern province of Xing'an, controlled the Ergun River Basin, opened up the Sino-Soviet border, and relied on the Soviet Union to prepare for counterattacks to face the increasingly large-scale "great crusade".

2. The Fourth Route Army sent some of the main forces to cope with the workers who escaped from the Xiaoxinganling Mountains and safely escorted them to the Soviet Union.

The stalemate in the Soviet-German battlefield, especially the Soviet Fifth Tank Army near Stalingrad, was annihilated, which gave Shi Daling an already unconfident mentality and a heavy blow, forcing him to aggravate his doubts about whether the Battle of Stalingrad could be won. If he wanted to mobilize troops from the Far East Military Region to support Stalingrad, he had to prevent the Kanto Army from taking advantage of the situation. The Japanese theory of ripe persimmons had to be guarded. Once the Far East Military Region drew 500,000 troops, God knows whether the evil wolf of Umetsu Mijiro will rob me. To prevent the Kanto Army, it must strengthen the combat effectiveness of the Anti-Japanese United Army and beware of the Kanto Army being eliminated by the Kanto Army in the short term.

Shi Daling is not a military blind man. He knew a military theory that was proven to be truth by countless examples, that is: an army without supplies, no matter how high its individual soldiers are, no matter how intelligent and brave the generals are, if they fall into the enemy's encirclement, it will be a matter of time before they collapse and destruction. If there is a steady stream of supplies, this team can persist for a long time, become a hard bone, hold up several times the enemy's army, and reduce the enemy's combat power. If you want to rely on the Anti-Japanese United Army, you must provide sufficient supplies to this army. If you expect him to fight a large-scale battle, you cannot cut off his ammunition.

After more than one month of high-intensity combat, the ammunition consumption of various anti-Japanese forces was astonishing. Many troops were forced to take up captured rifles to fight. In order to save ammunition, the consequence was that their combat effectiveness was reduced a lot. Indeed, if the ammunition was insufficient, some small-scale guerrilla warfare could be fought, but the anti-Japanese warfare against small-scale guerrilla warfare was not what Shi Daling expected. The effect of guerrilla warfare was long-term and lagging, and it was not enough to stop the activities of the Japanese heavy army group in the short term. The Kwantung Army could completely ignore a guerrilla team, but the Kwantung Army would never ignore a Anti-Japanese Army with sufficient troops and heavy weapons with sufficient food.

As long as the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces could be continuously supplied, the Japanese army would have to gather other ideas to specifically eliminate the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces.

This is the wishful thinking of Shi Daling. Now the main force of the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces is far away from the border, and the supply problem of the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces is quite large. Since the Kwantung Army discovered that aircraft flying over from the Soviet Union were replenishing the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces, the Kwantung Army immediately strengthened the patrol density of fighter jets on the border, making air supply extremely difficult.

The best way is to move the main force of the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces to the border to facilitate the acquisition of large amounts of supplies. Armed them into a steel barrier that cannot be defeated. At this time, the Americans also came to provide timely assistance and promised to share some of the supplies of the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces, which made Shi Daling overjoyed. Without hesitation, he agreed to Roosevelt's proposal to allow the US military to enter Outer Mongolia, and allow the Americans to use the Vladivostok port and railway to participate in the supply of the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces and the Outer Mongolian US military.

After several rounds of negotiations, the representatives of both sides, Ivanov, reached an agreement to move to the delegation with Yang Jingyu.

Ma Qian'an was able to understand the strategy change. He also knew that the benefits of the Anti-Japanese United Army after opening the Sino-Soviet border were at least not to lack food and ammunition, which would lead to the collapse of the entire army. If they were attacked continuously by heavy Japanese troops, they could also retreat into the Soviet Union in an organized manner and rest.

Ma Qian'an was happy that Shi Daling finally stopped being cautious, no longer worried about angering Japanese and agreed to open the border.

He and Zhou Yucheng were not worried about the border garrison on the border line of Xing'an North Province. If the second and fourth forces joined forces to attack the Japanese border garrison, the Japanese would not last long.

Ma Zhanshan should be notified immediately to prepare for the northward departing. Once the main force of the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces left this area, Ma Zhanshan would not be able to bear it. At critical moments, he needed to join forces to keep warm.

Ma Qian'an and Zhou Yucheng were worried about whether they could successfully complete the second task assigned by the headquarters. From the telegram, they learned that the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces in the Little Khingan Mountains were also fighting very hard, and they were no longer able to protect the workers rescued from the Japanese.

Since April, 200,000 workers have been working hard to build roads under the guns of the Japanese. The harsh environment and cruel abuse have caused a large number of workers to die. When the road was mostly built, the Ye Deputy Masato suddenly found that there were only a few workers left in his hands, and more than 100,000 people buried their bones in the barren mountains.

In the continuous battle with the Japanese, the Little Khinganling Anti-Japanese Allied Forces rescued no less than 50,000 workers. In addition to the workers who were rescued in advance who joined the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces, the workers rescued later were skinny and plagued by severe malnutrition and various diseases. Although the Anti-Japanese Allied Forces tried hard to save their lives, the labor mortality rate remained high until there were few medicines and food left.

Under the heavy encirclement of the Japanese, these workers not only could not become soldiers, but instead became a drag on the three armies. Based on this situation, Yang Jingyu decided to take advantage of the Soviets' opportunity to open the border and send them to cross and recuperate. Staying in the Little Xing'an Mountains was a dead end. The route chosen was Xing'an Northern Province, where the Japanese army had weak garrisons. This route was long and needed troops to escort.

Ma Qian'an's troops were ordered to escort the labor force's second half of the itinerary.

They had to constantly repel the Japanese troops surrounding the labor force and protect the roads. As many as 20,000 workers were escorted, it was an extremely difficult task to get these people to safely enter the Soviet Union.

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Chapter completed!